M AY

g a t e w a y Newsletter
Unit 1, 2 Parker Hill, Rathmines Road, D 6. E-mail : thegatewaynewsletter@gmail.com

2014

Welcome At last the evenings are beginning to stretch out ahead of us again. The grass is beginning to grow and the leaves are starting to bud once again. Even though this happens every year, we always go ooooh oraaagh every time we see this brilliant miracle of Springtime. So get out and walk and look around at all that is taking place around you. And I dont mean all the festivals and shows, I mean the wonderful world of nature and life.

NOW is the time to sign up for the WELL-BEING course youve always wanted to do! Starts on Friday 23rd of May for ten weeks, 12 till 3, get your name down fast! Contact maryb@rpcp.ie

Arts

and

crafts

with

TIM

Just look at this picture. What do you see? I see a lot of people together around a very colourful table, and everyone concentrating in a very relaxing way, as they create something colourful and wonderful. Tim has decided to put themes on each months art classes and the theme for the month of May will be landscape painting. So feel free to join Tim every Thursday this month in the back room and learn how to become another Van Gogh or another Monet. I jest you not..

Around exam time I surprised myself that I could get by on three or four hours sleep, I was so pumped up on caffeine and adrenaline. There are two indisputable things in life which make a Unfortunately when I moved to Dublin, my control of it, and my life balance slipped somewhat with the stresses happy man or woman. That is nice food and a good and strains of modern life, and I slide slowly off the night's sleep! Simple things really, and in my life's parapet into a grimy world of anxieties and perplexities experience and observance they are both pretty of what life was really about. On a few points my grasp essential! of reality, understandably, failed me, after a few nights of very broken and dreamless sleep. The world became Someone special a very dark and daunting world. My confidence and outlook and mind were shattered. I Meeting that someone special or the birth of a baby and reluctantly seeked medical attention for my bi-polar illness. new life, now those kind of stuff kind of make me ecstatic and are the icing on the cake to what is already after a little coaxing a nice recipe.

LOSING MORE THAN MY SLEEP

I have never had problems with food essentially, except for a tricky first year away in college, and love chicken Kiev's and peppered mackerels as good as anyone else, my staple. Bring me to a new restaurant to try new cuisine and I am simply in culinary Heaven! On the other hand, because of my illness and rather wild imagination, which causes my sleep to suffer sometimes, or through lack of sleep which most definitely brings on bouts of the illness, a real catch-22 situation, I haven't had the best sleeping patterns in the world ever by any means. I remember in college my sleep was of poor quality. Away from home for the first time, finding my independence, tentatively making new friends, found me in a whirl of new experiences.

This time I was pumped up on anti-psychotic drugs which I swallowed one by one unwillingly and reluctantly, but after a little coaxing. I re-found my calm and slept for days. -Ann Marie

How Thyroid illness can affect mental health.

A surprisingly large number of people who experience mental health problems such as insomnia, depression, anxiety or even hallucinations may have undiagnosed thyroid disease and could make a full recovery if they are correctly diagnosed and treated. The website www.thyromind.info was set up in 2003 to try to make people aware of a whole range of complex links between thyroid illness and mental health symptoms. Many people still do not realise just how much thyroid illness can impact mental health.. Some drugs used to treat mental health problems can actually make a thyroid illness worse. This should not be happening in the 21st Century. Thyroid treatment is a big good news story waiting to happen for possibly a great number of people.

M I N D F U L B R E AT H I N G
Mindful breathing is simply focusing your mind on the breath. Breathing in and breathing out. As one breath ends, another one begins. It may help you to focus on the breath more easily if you place your right hand on your stomach, and feel the rise and fall of the belly with each full breath. You may notice that in these first few moments of concentrating on your breath that your mind has begun to wander. This is what the mind does all the time. Be gentle and patient with yourself, every time you notice

this wandering of the mind, very gently come back to the breath. You may wish to see the breath as an anchor holding us steady whenever the mind begins to wander. This is what the mind does all the time. You can practise mindful breathing for 5-10 minutes each day and little by

Its good for you And its free

PEARSE MUSEUM VISIT

On the 27th of March 2014, some members of the Gateway Project went to The Pearse Museum which is situated in St. Endas Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14. The trip was tied in with the weekly Arts & Crafts Class, which takes place every Thursday between 2.30pm-4.30pm. We met at Parker Hill and travelled to the venue on the local Garda minibus. There were 14 people in attendance on the day. We ate in the coffee shop at the museum on arrival. The museum is located within St. Endas Park, which is near Marlay Park. The park has a nice wooded area, a pond, a stream and various small monuments.

Firstly we watched a 20 minute video giving a background to the museum. The Hermitage, as the house was originally known, was built 250 years ago and was opened as a boarding school by the Pearse brothers in 1910. Their ethos was to focus on Irish Culture and the Irish Language. At the same time the brothers were active in politics and in the organisation towards the 1916 rising, after which both were executed. The school continued until the late 1930s when it closed. The state took over ownership of the building in the late 1960s and Pearse Museum was opened to the public. The building contains furniture, art works, documents and a reconstruction of a sleeping dorm where students slept. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and helpful in answering questions posed by many members of our group. The museum is well kept, informative and located in a nice environment. It is a hidden gem as it is away from the main tourist areas. I enjoyed the visit and we managed to take a few photos in the gardens afterwards. Thanks to Gateway, the two Garda who transported us to and from the venue and to all Gateway members who attended. -Richard.

Reminder Oliver D is still meeting members in Toast Caf Rathmines every Wed at 1pm. All are welcome!

Check out the Harolds Cross Festival. Starts Friday the 2nd of May and ends with a grand finale on Sunday evening the 5th. This is their 5th year to organise it and it just keeps getting better and better each year, Check out the details on Haroldscrossfestival.com

My Mind in Ranelagh is offering discounted counselling services. Vouchers are available to Gateway members at e10 per session for 5 sessions. Contact Mary Barnes on 01-4965558.

Whatever the race ...

If you are thinking of running or walking any races in the coming months and would like to support the work of Mental Health Reform, get in touch! We can support you with a fundraising toolkit, MHR t -shirt and support on social media. Just contact Lara, lkelly@mentalhealthreform.ie. Your support will go a long way!

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

These are a few of my favourite things by Richard.

Colour: Blue Season: Summer Sound: The

P O O L C O M PE TI T I ON A T G A T E WA Y ( A PR I L 20 1 4 ) The April Gateway Pool Competition took place on Thursday 24th. It was hotly contested amongst the ten eager participants. There was great for the fourth time. interest amongst the members who cheered wildly to Congratulations to Oliver and commiserations to Ciaran on his encourage the players. valiant effort. After several close and tense matches, two excellent finalists In the end it was an enjoyable came through and pitted their day for all involved in the skills against each other in a completion. thrilling final. The next Pool Competition Ciaran C and Oliver R came will take place on Thursday head to head in the final and the 29th of May 2014 Oliver R won the Competition between 2pm - 4pm. Darkness Into Light, proudly supported by Electric Ireland, is the absolute highlight of the Pieta House calendar! Starting at 4.15am (in Phoenix Park), and crossing the line just as dawn is breaking, the phenomenon that is Darkness Into Light, our annual 5km walk/run, will celebrate its sixth year on Saturday, May 10th 2014, with nearly 40 venues across Ireland and beyond lined up.

Breath

Music: Ambient/Drone
Memory: New

Zealand (1998)

Film: Memento T.V Series: The Hero: David

Wire

Attenborough

Other things I like: Collecting

music/ The Ocean/My bed/Maps/Nature/ Swimming and Quietness

GATEWAY ART DAY TRIP: This month the art group are heading to the National Gallery at Merrion Square. Come and register your interest in Gateway. The date is Thursday the 22nd of May. We will be meeting at 1 oclock in Parker Hill.

See Change, the National Stigma Reduction Partnership and their 90 partner organisations are rolling out a month long national Green Ribbon Campaign to get people talking openly about mental health problems in May 2014. Pick up your Green Ribbon at one of the various community events and at major Irish Rail stations and at every Citizen's Information Centre and MABS office nationwide.
I asked God for a bi ke, but I kn ow God doe sn t work that way. So I stole a bi ke an d aske d for f orgiv eness.

LOCAL CRAFT FAIR: St. Agnes Community Centre for Music and the Arts are organising a Craft Fair behind St. Agnes School, Armagh Road on 15th May. All stall holders are local and this event will give them a chance to show and sell their craft while also providing much needed advertising for the Community Centre for Music and the Arts.

11 Wynnefield Road Dublin 6. Ph. 01-4965558 www.projectgateway.blogspot.com

Views expressed in this newsletter are only views of the contributors and not views of the Gateway Project.